Blue Screen of Death, games crashin, firefox crashing, WTF!?

[dangerdave]

Okay, heres whats happening to my computer:

When I try to copy DVD's I get the blue screen on death, usually after about 1-3 minutes of copying dvd to hdd (which automatically makes me suspect my hdd.)

-I pulled my dvd drive and tried it on my shuttle and it works fine.

When I go to the this one spot in FEAR, instead of loading the new level, it crashes, and I get the windows error thing, the one were it asks me to report it.

When I try to play Condemed, it automatically gives me the error report thing.

-For the record these games were working fine about a week ago.

What else? Hmm.. Well, Firefox seems to be crashing a little too much. Usually when I have about a million tabs open, and I'm downloading alot.


What I'm doing right now is running seatools diagnosis, if both hdd's don't report errors, I am going to try and loosen my ram timings. If that doesn't work, I suspect my video card.

My card runs at 76 C while I play games, is that normal??

Anybody have any thoughts/comments? I'm really hoping there is a less obvious problem that hasn't occured to me.

Also, heres my system specs:

Motherboard: Chaintech VNF4 Ultra
PSU:Vantec Ion 2 (460 Watt)
Video Card: Radeon X800 Pro
Ram: 2X512 Mushkin Blue Line
HDD: (2X120Gb Raid 0) Seagate Barracuda ATA
CPU: Athlon 64 3500

 

[The_Prophecy]

When it blue screens again... grab the error code (in the form of 0x000000XX). If you see more than one of these codes on screen, there will be 1 outside a set of brackets and 4 inside some brackets. Get the one that's outside the brackets and post it here.

Your video temp seems kinda high. If the warranty has expired on the card, pick up some Arctic Silver 5 and remove your GPU heatsink. Do your absolute best to remove all of the old thermal paste and apply no more than a paper thin layer of AS 5 to the GPU core. Best way is to push an uncooked grain of rice sized amount of AS 5 onto the core, then use a credit card or business card to spread it over the core until you achieve the paper thin layer status. So long as you're careful while handling the card while it's out of the case, you won't have any problems. I have just done this to my 6800GT and the Idle temp of the core dropped 8C, and the load temp dropped 4C.

 

[GhostX]

If it crashes on a DVD burn and a video game etc etc.. it could be memory as well. Like the above guy sayd your video is pretty hot.. but that wouldnt explain why your dvd write is blowing up.

My bet is memory.

 

[dangerdave]

The screen shows up for like 2 seconds, then my pc reboots. Is there a way to make it pause or something?

My card is under a 3 year warranty, so I don't want to lose that. What are regular full load temps for video cards anyways?

 

[dangerdave]

What program should I get to test my memory? Never mind, gonna try memtest and the M$ one after seatools is done.

Update: The Seatools bad sector thing is only at 13% right now. And I still have another hdd to test. If it's not one of the hdd's, I'm gonna need to do alot more testing.

Dang it, my whole freaking computer is suspect now.

 

[GhostX]

Just play with the timings or try pulling a stick.. try different slots etc. I am unsure of the tool to test it.

One thing though.. is it structured and measurabled where it craps out? Or is it somewhat random? I ha da CPU overheat and hit a BSoD all the time.

I still think just hearing that when burning DVDs it crashes it must be memory.. but heat could be the problem too. Try running a burn with the cover off the case.. blow a room fan into the case to keep it cool and see if it still craps out?

I mean if you have a repeatable graphics issue its the card and or the heat on it.. but you have a graphic issue AND a write issue outside of the game itself.

 

[Guest]

Just one remark from my side, the vid temp is ok for an X8XX...; with stock cooling they can get as high as 90C.

 

[dangerdave]

Alight, I'll get to work on that.

Yes, its measurable. I can replicate the errors very easily.

Ie: Open abunch of tabs and download alot of stuff within the tabs, that will cause firefox to crash.

Burn a DVD, blue screen almost* everytime now. (I say almost because I have only done this 4-6 times before posting here)

Play FEAR or Condemned= crash.

Also, when I first got my memory, it was bad. I returned it and received the newer reversion of them.

But, get this, my bios auto detected them at like 3-4-4, or something like that; I don't remember. I have to manually set the cas, ras, and all that other stuff. I called the Mushkin tech support, they told me it's fine having do this; they recommended it.

Sooo, I'm definetely gonna play around with the ram now. My seatools thing is only at 21% !!! I think I'm gonna cancel out of that. It'll take about 2 days to finish at this rate.

It's good to hear my video card is alright at least.

 

[eightender]

I would certainly suspect RAM as being the cuplrit as well, especially considering the wide range of problems that are causing the error. Posting the error code from the BSOD is a good idea.

I know you mentioned that the PC restarts too fast to get the message... try going into the Control Panel -> System -> Advanced -> Statup and Recovery Settings. In there, uncheck "Automatically Restart" in the System Failure section, and the BSOD should stay up for you to get all the STOP information.

As for testing the Memory, go to www.memtest86.com and download one of their utilities... they are pretty reliable for detecting errors in RAM.

Cheers

 

[dangerdave]

Ok, I haven't tried memtest yet, but I used the M$ one, I ran it for 6 cycles. It came up with zero errors.

Also, perfect timing. I did that no restart thing. Then I clicked CloneDVD and got the blue screen. The error code was:

UDFS_FILE_SYSTEM

Technical Info:

***STOP: 0X0000009B (0X0014002E, 0XA857C910, 0XA857C60C, 0X00000163)

I'm gonna try the memtest now too. I'm also gonna see if all my blue screen codes are the same.

Update: It seems I can get it to crash alot more by running clonedvd AND playing UT2004. That pretty much guarantees a crash.

 

[eightender]

Hmmm... interesting. Given the mention of UDFS, that particular error looks like it might be a problem with a CD/DVD drive. Could still be RAM, but if you have ran a test already, and run memtest as well, you should be pretty safe there. Very well could be Hard Drives / DC/DVD Drives.... Perhaps an IDE problem in general if all your drives are IDE....

I would be interested to see if your other error codes are the same, or different a well. You could check the Event Log as well and see if you are getting any warnings or errors at the time your system is crashing... if you are getting a lot of Warnings/errors the Event ID of these may also help shed some light on your problem.

 

[dangerdave]

Ok, got another one. This time all I was doing is running clonedvd.

DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL

Technical info: ***STOP: 0X000000D1 (0X00000163, 0X00000002, 0X00000008, 0X00000163)

Wheres the even log at? Also, I tried my dvd burner on my shuttle it worked fine, I did like 2 dvd's on it.

 

[eightender]

Right Click on My Computer -> Manage. System Tools -> Event Viewer. Check under either Application or System for Errors/Warnings. Each should have an event number.

 

[rabidbunny]

Just one remark from my side, the vid temp is ok for an X8XX...; with stock cooling they can get as high as 90C.

Dude, I have an x800 GTO and it stays at around 38degrees C up to 45 in games in a Dell case with stock parts for the dell. Maybe he isn't getting enough cooling on his gpu? Also, what is the case temp?? that could help alot.

 

[dangerdave]

Scratch that. I'm gonna list whats actually an error, not an info thing in a sec.

Ok, under system I only have one exclamation point thing, its repeated like 20 times in a row. And then it has never occured again. It says: Bandwidth limitation. Overlay allocation failed. It's source is ati2mtag. That it under system. I haven't gotten to application yet...

Okay, under application I have a whole boat load of: Faulting application condemned.exe, version 1.0.320.0, faulting module eax.dll, version 4.0.0.0, fault address 0x00002e35.

They all say something like that, the applications vary along with some of the addresses. Some say "hang module" instead of "faulting".

Heres a few samples:

Faulting application firefox.exe, version 1.8.20060.42618, faulting module js3250.dll, version 4.0.0.0, fault address 0x0000488e.

Faulting application fear.exe, version 1.0.0.0, faulting module fear.exe, version 1.0.0.0, fault address 0x0007b149.

Faulting application condemned.exe, version 1.0.320.0, faulting module eax.dll, version 4.0.0.0, fault address 0x00002e35.

Faulting application oblivion.exe, version 0.1.0.228, faulting module oblivion.exe, version 0.1.0.228, fault address 0x000025da.

Hanging application PowerDVD.exe, version 7.0.1629.0, hang module hungapp, version 0.0.0.0, hang address 0x00000000.

Fault bucket 283507350.

Fault bucket 288611278.

Hanging application nero.exe, version 6.6.0.16, hang module hungapp, version 0.0.0.0, hang address 0x00000000.

Faulting application vn210518.exe, version 0.0.0.0, faulting module user32.dll, version 5.1.2600.2622, fault address 0x000150fc.

Fault bucket 290115999.

Faulting application mplayerc.exe, version 6.4.8.4, faulting module quicktimeessentials.qtx, version 6.5.1.17, fault address 0x000082bf.

Each of those errors has occured like 5-10 times each. Give or take a few.

Can anyone decode this nonsense?

 

[dangerdave]

I'm not sure exactly what the case temperature is. But, the air coming out of the exhaust fan is pretty cool.

 

[eightender]

Wow.. definitely a doozy here...

Those errors from the event log make me think RAM because of all the faults, or it could be Paging file... how much RAM do you have installed in this system? Could just be running out / not able to page it fast enough. The event ID for those events would be helpful though... is it the same ID< or different ID's. (Should be a column inside the event viewer called "Event" with anumber, or if you double-click on the event itself there should be an Event ID on the right-hand side above the description.)

The last BSOD message is usually related to a bad driver. Have you updated any hardware drivers lately/just before the problem started? Might have to do a driver roll-back and see if that helps.

 

[dokk]

HI Dave, While I do not pretend to be as competent as a lot of others herein,may I suggest the following,if you have not done the following defrag,antivirus scan,spyware,y'know the usual junk,then if you can get ahold of a ME boot disk run scandisk,then let it,y'know do it's so called low level,[it will be cheaper and faster than anything else and may give you a hedz up] examine the only [quicker] the DATA areas of your hdd ,...
Should you get HDD errors THEN you may need something like spinrite or some such util..
The reason I suggest this is because "been there done that",hit my machine a while back,and scandisk saved my azz,..
You might want to consider a reformat/MBR,reinstall ????
Also and as a last resort your memory/ controller could be shot..

Let us know how you "make out",so we can learn too. G' Luck Mate....


"Windoze and paranoia go hand in hand".

 

[dangerdave]

I have two sticks of 512.

Good spot! Most of the event things are 1000. Some are 1001 and some are 1002.

I just suspected drivers too. It turns out I didn't have the latest Nforce4 drivers. So, I updated to the newest ones. Still having problems.

 

[dangerdave]

Ok, I'll do a good defrag, virus/spyware scan and I'll do a good ol' scandisk too. I'll let you guys' know. I like to think positive. Shoot, if any of these simple things fixs it, I'll be the happiest guy in the world.

 

[eightender]

I would definitely continue down the driver road.... (So long as AV / Spyware came back clean) and again, try rolling back anything else you may have updated recently (video/sound)

You could also try increasing the paging file as well.
Control Panel -> System -> Advanced -> Performance Settings -> Advanced Tab -> Change.

Check what the current size is (Probably windows managed, but should show what windows has allocated) then change it to custom size and double what Windows was using for both initial nad maximum. (So long as you have enough hard drive space to do so.) You could also try moving the paging file to a different partition or physical drive if you have two HD's. Hit set, then ok, restart, and see if that helps.

 

[dangerdave]

I actually, although I barely remember, did that awhile ago. Right now its set to Initial Size: 1536 And Max Size: 3072. Pest Patrol actually found one trojan, I removed it, still have errors.

 

[juvealert]

hey man i do not know if the other dudes told coz i didn't have time to read the all d post

but i sugest that u stress test your mobo if ur ram is ok ( search tom's hard website or search google u will find somthing intresting)

if ur mobo is ok back up all ur data on an external hardisk using usb and try go for a format

on my last format when i installed windows and copyied my backup to my hard disk i had this crap of virus in myback up which was disabiling my sound card then some how after a bunch of hard work my anti virus managed to detect the virus

u may have the same kind of problem scan ur back up with anti virus and install the games and check if u get the same result

if this is a new build consider to check u connections also or obtain another copy of windows and apply the hotfixs

good luck

 

[dangerdave]

I ran a ram test program for 6 cycles, it didn't detect any problems. And, not that I trust the Mushkin tech guy, both sticks were tested before sending to me. The first pair were doa.

I ran a few virus/spyware programs, I didn't get anything besides the normal tracking cookies, and a trojan in the ol' temp file. All removed, all problems still here.

This is a really old build; for me at least, It was setup about a year ago.

To everyone else: Thanks for all the help. I'm still sol here. I've made some progress, maybe. This is what I did. I ran what I knew to be a good hdd on my computer. It didn't boot. So, I figured, its like some M$ bullony thing about changing mofo's and xp not working.

What I did was install windows xp with the working hdd. I got through the whole beginning part with the partitions and all. Now, heres were it gets interesting. Were usually it will try and boot from the cd and you don't press anything so it can boot from the hdd and continue installing xp, well, it didn't. It would just boot from the cd over and over again. Total loop action.

I disable the cdrom from being a boot option; leaving only the hdd, and I got this message: Disk boot failure, insert system disk and press enter.

I'm thinking that my whole motherboard is shot. What do you guys think? Also, fun fact here. When I tried to update to the newest firmware, it wouldn't allow me. (and that protect firmware option IS disabled)

 

[juvealert]

hey man thats y i sugested that u run a motherboard stress test


it will indicate to u if the mobo is nearly to a complete failure


go to google and search for motherboar stress test

u will find someintresting products